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Commentary: The real ‘enemy of the people’ is silence

Let’s be serious. The Salt Lake Tribune is not the enemy of the people. Neither is the Wall Street Journal, or the New York Times or the Associated Press. Not even the Deseret News!

Despite wild claims from the president, they — and most other mainstream media outlets, whether they be national or local, broadcast, digital or print — are not in the business of producing “fake news.” They pursue fact-based reporting. Facts, by definition, must be consistent with reality, even as those facts are sought by imperfect reporters prone to mistakes that are inevitably corrected.

Factual reporting in mainstream journalism is often accompanied by two wide-ranging companions — analysis and opinion.